Diane Lane and Eleanor Coppola Talk Paris Can Wait

Making the film Paris Can Wait in the French countryside was a culinary dream for star Diane Lane. “All the cheeses, red wine, dark chocolate, chocolate mousse, chocolate flowers,” she said at a screening of the film, presented by the Cinema Society and BNY Mellon. “It was nice not to be an aesthetic, it was nice not to be from California for a minute.”

In the charming film, Lane plays a woman taking a road trip from Cannes to Paris when her car breaks down. The unexpected journey, replete with food, wine, and, of course, romance, reawakens her senses. The film was was written and directed by a newcomer: 81-year-old Eleanor Coppola, wife of Francis Ford Coppola and mother of Sofia. “I’ve made a lot of documentaries, but I never imagined myself making a fictional film,” she explained. “I had this little trip myself and I was telling a friend and she said, ‘That’s the movie I want to see,’ and it was just at a moment in my life where I thought I’d just give it a try. Life is short when you get to my age.”

Coppola, who codirected the acclaimed documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse admitted that she was nervous to be helming the project, but after spending six years securing financing and lining up the cast, she was prepared to do it.Coppola also revealed that she was happy to get plot suggestions and ideas from all quarters; a nephew suggested having the car break down, while a friend told her about a dessert called Nipples of Venus.

“I just gathered any suggestion that I thought would enhance the project,” she said. “I feel really fortunate to have had the opportunity to do something very hard, very challenging that I’ve never done at this point in my life. It just kind of wakes you up.”

After the screening, guests including Cuba Gooding, Jr., Francis Ford Coppola, Jennifer Morrison, Tara Summers, and Nanette Lepore headed to the Ladurée Soho where they sipped on Coppola wines.